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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kannik" data-source="post: 5828127" data-attributes="member: 984">I, personally, would phrase the question the other way:  "why can't we just live with that HP has always been more than just physical damage inside the game."  It is how Gary Gygax wrote AD&D, it is how every edition since 1e has described them.  Do they bring up odd instances, questions, circumstances and inconsistencies?  You bet!  And it’s how we’ve played and loved our D&D for 30 years.  If we choose to model HP as nothing but pure physical damage capability, then the fundamentals of the game will have to change:  we will need a greater emphasis on defensive rolls and a more tight modeling of how armour works to deflect or mitigate weapon hits.  We’ll be rolling more, tracking more, doing more calculations, and the game could get quite swingy, with a good sword hit felling a level 18 character in one swoop.  There are great games out there that model that;  I would argue that it is not the style of heroic fantasy that D&D is known for.  All that said, given the way healing was allowed (or not allowed really -- healing was very limited, slow by natural means and only quick by divine magic means) in most editions it is not surprising that HP got collapsed with “only physical damage” in our gamer minds (else why wouldn't you regain HP faster?).  It’s just not what the game was based on, and it broke verisimilitude aplenty to view it that way (even as we thought it didn’t – just shows how well we can align anything to our view that we choose to see).  I’ve posted this quote from the 1e PHB many a times, so I’ll just sum up here my favourite part of it:  “It is ridiculous to assume that even a fantastic fighter can take that much punishment... Thus, the majority of hit points are symbolic of combat skill, luck (bestowed by supernatural powers), and magical forces.”  Peace,Kannik</blockquote>

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